Reza Aslan Biography
A native of Tehran, Iran, Reza Aslan is an Iranian-American author, television host, public intellectual, producer, and religious studies scholar.
He is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.
Aslan is also a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the International Qur’anic Studies Association. He is a board member of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).
Throughout his writing career, he has written three books on religion: No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age of Globalization, and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.
Reza Aslan Education
Aslan attended Del Mar High School in San Jose, graduating in 1990. He then attended Santa Clara University, where he earned a B.A. in religious studies. Aslan also holds a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.
In addition, he holds a Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing from the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Reza Aslan Age
Aslan was born on 3rd May 1972 in Tehran, Iran. He is 53 years old as of 2025.
Reza Aslan Family
Aslan’s family came to the United States from Tehran, fleeing the Iranian Revolution in 1979. There is no information available about his parents and siblings. However, his aunt is the famed Iranian-American pop singer, Leila Forouhar.
Reza Aslan and Wife
Aslan is married to entrepreneur and author Jessica Jackley. Jessica is a Christian, and the couple got married in 2011 and formed an interfaith family. They have 3 sons together. Before his marriage, he was engaged to journalist Amanda Fortini until they called off their engagement in 2008.
Reza Aslan Writing
Aslan has 3 published books.
- No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
This is a fiction book that describes the history of Islam and argues for a liberal interpretation of the religion. It blames the current controversies within Islam on Western imperialism and self-serving misinterpretations of Islamic law by past scholars.
- How to Win a Cosmic War: Beyond Fundamentalism
In this book, he argues that the United States, by starting the War on Terror with its own religiously polarizing rhetoric, is fighting a similar war – a war that he asserts can’t be won. He refers to Al Qaeda’s jihad against the West as a “cosmic war.” “A cosmic war is like a ritual drama in which participants act out on earth a battle they believe is actually taking place in the heavens,” says Aslan. Aslan also distinguishes Islamism and Jihadism. He says Islamists have legitimate goals and can be negotiated with, unlike Jihadists who dream of an idealized past of a pan-Islamic, borderless “religious communalism”.
- Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
This is the historical account of the life of Jesus. It analyzes the various religious perspectives on Jesus, as well as the creation of Christianity. In the book, Aslan states that Jesus was a political, rebellious, and eschatological Jew whose proclamation of the coming kingdom of God was a call for regime change that would end Roman hegemony over Judea and end a corrupt and oppressive aristocratic priesthood.
Aslan has also written for various newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post, Slate, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, The Nation, and The Christian Science Monitor.
Reza Aslan
Aslan founded Aslan Media, which is a media platform offering alternative coverage of the Middle East and its global diaspora communities.
Reza Aslan BoomGen Studios
Aslan teamed up with Iranian American cinematographer and producer Mahyad Tousi to create BoomGen Studios in 2006. This is a studio and production company focused on bringing stories from and about the Middle East to American audiences.
They consulted projects like National Geographic’s Amreeka; Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and the Broadway adaptation of Aladdin; the Weinstein Company’s Miral; Relativity Media’s Desert Dancer; Fork Films’ The Trials of Spring; Jon Stewart’s directorial debut Rosewater; and 2014 Oscar-nominated documentary, The Square.
Of Kings and Prophets
In January 2015, BoomGen announced that ABC picked up its biblical epic, Of Kings and Prophets. Kings and Prophets is a dramatic retelling of the central story in the Hebrew Bible: the story of King David from shepherd to king. The series followed the characters of the successive Kings of Israel like Saul and David, their families, and their political rivals. Of Kings and Prophets was set in the Kingdom of Israel but was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa.
Reza Aslan The Leftovers
Aslan joined the popular HBO series The Leftovers as a consulting producer for both its second and third seasons in 2015. He was also an integral in protagonist Kevin Garvey’s season two character arc.
Reza Aslan Believer
Aslan began production for the “spiritual travel series” Believer in 2015. This is a documentary series that follows Aslan as he immerses himself and experiences various religious traditions all over the world, focusing on sects considered fringe and disreputable by larger religions. The program premiered in March 2017. The first episode focused on the Aghori sect of Hinduism, and this led to controversy with accusations of sensationalism and anti-Hinduism when Aslan ate part of a human brain while meeting Aghori sadhus.
The United States India Political Action Committee said in a statement that the show characterizes Hinduism as cannibalistic, which is a bizarre way of looking at the third-largest religion in the world. Vamsee Juluri, professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco, described the episode as “reckless, racist, and anti-immigrant”. Also, Aseem Shukla of the Hindu American Foundation accused Aslan of being “poorly informed”. In June 2017, Aslan made some profane anti-Trump tweets, and on June 9, 2017, CNN announced that it had decided not to move forward with the production of Aslan’s Believer. Aslan, however, defended the show on Facebook and also apologized for the tweets he had made earlier.
Reza Aslan and William Lane Craig
Theologian William Lane Craig criticized Aslan regarding his new book, Zealot. William dismissed the book, claiming Jesus is historically unknowable. “Aslan has offered nothing new under the sun when it comes to offering a critique of the historical Jesus,” Craig said in response to Aslan’s book. “He is attempting to revert scholarship to the early 1900s by echoing Albert Schweitzer’s book, The Quest for the Historical Jesus. Like Schweitzer, Aslan claims that Jesus is historically unknowable and we can never get back to the real Jesus.”
Reza Aslan Net Worth
Aslan has an estimated net worth of $3 million.
Reza Aslan Twitter
Aslan does not have a personal X account. However, you can catch him on his podcast account.
Reza Aslan The Stream